Announcement of a new European Coordinated Action Award

GSD

Global System Dynamics and Policies : simulation and visualisation technologies

Summary

Society currently faces a set of new challenges that are both global in scale and highly dynamic. Examples are: climate change, security, health, communications as well as the globalisation of the economy. When addressing these problems, to fully assess the way forward requires policy makers to have access to the best advice covering all aspects of science, social studies, industry and economics, as well as being given predictions of the implications of any suggested actions. Consequently researchers in different disciplines must come together and present their joint outcomes in a coherent manner. It is envisaged that new forms of dynamical simulation, together with visualisations of scenarios, will need to be developed in order to convey complex information. The difficulties faced by researchers have recently been highlighted by studies in complex systems but policy makers, and the general public, are still struggling to come to terms with how to interpret information from typical population-economy-energy-climate simulation models.

The need to make progress in this area has been further recognised by the 'Future and Emerging Technologies' programme of the European Commission with the granting of a Coordinated Action award to help a collection of scientists get together to map out the way forward through a series of conferences, workshops and web-based activities. The hope being that the mélange, and subsequent distillation of ideas will highlight the need for new methodologies and novel numerical solutions to complex problems that will led to a better understanding and harnessing of the complex dynamics that policy makers need to tackle.

The award will run for two years starting May 2008 and will act as melting pot for opinions and ideas. Partners in the award will trial some new technologies before the group as a whole sets out a route map for future directions. Case studies will be undertaken so that detailed analysis of solution strategies can be addressed, including risk assessment of alternative options, in such a way that the work will go beyond generalities of the text-book and move into the board room or government.

During the first phase, the partners in this coordinated action will use their extensive existing networks with European policy makers and industry to engage in a process of communication of the potential of demands that need to be met. The aim is to develop new processes of interaction between scientists and stakeholders which can be facilitated through the application of simulation tools for rapid analysis of these complex dynamic systems, together with the analysis of very large, dispersed data sets. For instance, an internet based visualisation of policy outcomes in energy system transitions will be developed, to provide the basis for a continuing dialogue on how such simulations can be used to communicate the relative merits and demerits of different policies for these global challenges. GSD will provide a pilot web-based networking resource to enable communication of the new methods and demonstrate possibilities for new structures leading to greater interaction between policymakers and the scientific community. Furthermore, GSD will address how policy makers can use this information to inform the general public.

The Partners

This award brings together a diverse but complementary collection of academics covering a wide range of backgrounds. The initial partners, indicating institutional involvement, are:-

  • Steven Bishop (Coordinator) – University College London, UK
  • Julian Hunt – House of Lords, UK
  • Bert de Vries - Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation of Utrecht University, Netherlands
  • Klaus Hasselmann – Max Planck Institute of Meteorology, Germany
  • Kristian Lindgren – Chalmers University, Sweden
  • David Wasdell – Apollo Gaia Project, UK
  • Anastasia Sofroniou – Intercollege, Cyprus
  • Tarmo Soomere – Tallinn University of Technology Institute of Cybernetics, Estonia
  • Antonio Ruiz de Elvira -Universidad de Alcalá. Spain
  • Henri Berestycki, Jean-Pierre Nadal - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and Centre d'analyse et de Mathématique Sociales of the French CNRS, Paris
  • Carlo Jaeger – Chair European Climate Forum, and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany

Information about the project will soon be available on our website (look for gsd) but in the meanwhile contact the Coordinator Professor Steven Bishop, Mathematics Department, University College London, Gower Street, London WCE 6BT, Telephone +44-20-7679-3082 or email who will be happy to put you on an emailing list for future events.

The Partners acknowledge the financial support of the Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) programme within the Seventh Framework Programme for Research of the European Commission, under the FET-Open grant agreement GSD, number 221955

The EC contact is .

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